


It's Actually Pretty Easy Being Nice To A Bitter Boy Like Him (Reed900)

by CrimsonFandomTrash



Series: Detroit: Become Human Stuff - HankCon & Reed900 Hell [19]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Cat Owner Gavin Reed, Character Development, Cigarettes, Developing Relationship, Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Estrangement, Existentialism, Gavin Reed Being Less of an Asshole, Gavin Reed is Bad at Feelings, Gavin Reed-centric, Gay Disaster Gavin Reed, Gen, Hugs, M/M, Melodrama, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Self-Hatred, Smoking, Trans Male Character, Tsundere Gavin Reed, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 21:47:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16049210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrimsonFandomTrash/pseuds/CrimsonFandomTrash
Summary: It started so slowly that even Nines had almost missed it. They argued less, Gavin seemed a bit more comfortable with him being there. At first, it seemed like Detective Reed had only been adapting. Getting over his intolerance towards Bryan to make his life easier, as all humans sought convenience. Nines wouldn't have even minded if that had been the case.But, then they started interacting more friendly like at home, playing video games, and watching movies. Sometimes, Nines would paint Gavin's nails for him while the detective bitched about life. And it was while they were playing video games one night that he thought Gavin might be considering him a friend.





	It's Actually Pretty Easy Being Nice To A Bitter Boy Like Him (Reed900)

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that RK900 goes by 'Bryan' and 'Nines' in this fic, yes, I named him after Bryan Dechart, fite me.
> 
> I wrote this basically as an exposition dump of all my Gavin Reed headcanons. He deserved better.

  Detective Reed was definitely an... interesting character, Bryan mused.

   He thought this while sitting in the passenger seat of Gavin's car. The detective left a couple minutes ago to go into a McDonald's. He apparently didn't like the size of the line of the drive-thru and decided it'd be quicker to go inside and order, leaving Bryan alone in the car by himself. 

   He remembers what led up to him sitting in Gavin's car in the first place.  _"So, what, you just stay here at the station all night after I leave?"_

    _"A very astute observation, Detective."_  Bryan had snarked back.  _"Correct. I stay here. The only time I leave is when we're out doing legwork."_

   Gavin's face shifted into something for only a second, but it was long enough for Bryan to be able to scan. Guilt. Likely, he was thinking about how often they ended up doing legwork- or rather, how often they  **didn't**  end up doing any, because Gavin never left the break room.  _"So, what you're telling me, essentially, is that you're homeless."_

    _"I don't require a home."_ Bryan had replied.  _"Humans need shelter and amenities provided by a home. I'm not human. I don't need anything."_

_"Fuck, Nines, doesn't it bother you, though?"_

   Bryan furrowed his brows.  _"I don't see why you would care."_

Gavin had sneered at that comment. Annoyance.  _"Alright, you're crashing on my couch. Come on."_

So, here he was, sitting in his partner's car while the asshole detective was making a stop at a McDonald's before going home. He'd tried to argue with Reed that he really didn't need anything, and had again brought up that he didn't understand why Gavin would be trying to be nice to him like this, and the detective had only huffed and turned down all his arguments. It seemed he wasn't going to get out of this. 

   He found himself quite bored after Gavin had been gone for five minutes and twelve seconds, so he decided to look around for something to do. He scanned the car, finding that there were cat hairs on the seats, the same ones that often appeared on the human's clothes. A sticker on the dash read, 'HANG ON, SHIT'S ABOUT TO GET REAL' in all capital letters-  _yeah, I doubt that_. There was trash under the seats, mostly old receipts and to go bags from various fast food places. There were fifteen cents under the mat on the driver's side, a dream catcher hung from the rearview mirror, and a small plastic air freshener shaped like a cactus was attached to the air conditioning/heating system. Fitting, considering what a prick he was. 

   A quick look in the glove box revealed that Gavin was at least semi-smart- he had a flashlight, a small box of ammo, and-

   He's unable to scan anything else before something silver catches his eyes, glinting in the dimness of the car. A butterfly knife. Bryan thinks back to the detective's leather jacket and messily painted black nails. It seems Gavin thinks himself a bit of a punk. Which is funny, given his short stature, all the cat hair in here, and that he's an officer of the law. Albeit not very good at his job, but an officer of the law nonetheless. 

   He pulls the blade out and looks at it closely. It doesn't look like any normal blade, it looks custom- like it was made for Reed. That assumption appears to be true since he turns it over in his hand and catches glimpse of an inscription on the side. 

    _Happy 18th, little brother._  
    _Love, E.K._  
 _10/07/2020_

"Hey! The fuck're you doing?"

   Nines nearly jumped out of his synthetic skin when the sound of Gavin's voice interrupted his thoughts. Normally, he'd return Detective Reed's bad attitude right back at him- but he was kind of the one in the wrong here, digging around in Gavin's stuff. He didn't even get to answer before Gavin snatched the blade from him. "I apologize, Detective. I became bored and decided to look around for something to occupy myself. I should have known better than to go snooping."

   Gavin's expression softened a bit as he threw the blade up on the dash, closed the door behind him, and buckled his seatbelt. "Yeah, well, just don't do it again." He muttered. 

   Gavin had barely pulled out of the parking lot before Bryan spoke up again. "Can I ask you a personal question, Detective?"

   Gavin heaved a sigh that sounded like it was mixed with a very annoyed groan. "What? Lemme guess, it's about the knife, right?"

   "Correct. Who is it from?"

   "It's from my brother," Gavin replied. He scoffed. "Doesn't really matter. Haven't talked to him in... fuck, ten years now, or some shit like that."

   Nines cocked a brow. "Do you not like your brother?"

   "I never said that. 'S just hard to get a hold of him anymore, is all." Gavin shrugged. 

   "Why?"

   Gavin looked at him for only a moment before looking back at the road, if only so Bryan could see his annoyed expression. "Why do you ask so many questions?"

   "I'm a model that was designed to be an investigator," Nines explained. "Now that I'm my own person, that curiosity has manifested into my personality. My predecessor is the same way."

   "You mean Connor." It was a statement, not a question.

   "Yes."

   Gavin sighed for probably the third time since the beginning of this conversation. A quick rewind of his memory file told Nines he was exaggerating the number a bit. It was only the second time. " _God_ , I just  _had_  to get paired up with a naturally curious fucking toaster." A pause, before he muttered. "The fuck's my life comin' to...?" Nines didn't have an answer to that, and more than likely, it was rhetorical, so he didn't comment. 

   They soon arrived at the target destination; Gavin Reed's apartment building. The detective parked the car, very nearly backing into another vehicle (a bad cop  _and_  a bad driver, what are the odds?). Nines exited the car,  and they walked into the apartment building, where Gavin pulled out a set of keys on a keychain that read, in bright rainbow letters, 'I can't even think straight'. Nines decided not to ask. The apartment door swung open, and he followed Gavin inside.

   The door clicked shut behind them, and Nines felt something brush up against his leg. 

    _Mrow_.

   He looked down to see a pure grey cat with bright green eyes staring up at him. "That's Ash." Came Gavin's voice after a moment. "He's an asshole."

   "Pets have a tendency to mirror their human's personality."

   "Fuck you." Gavin snarked back, but Nines couldn't find any bite in it, unlike usual. "Seems like he likes you." Another cat soon strutted up to them and decided Gavin was a more suitable target of their affection, rubbing and pawing at his ankles. "And this is Domino. She's the baby."

   Domino had fluffy white fur with a few patches of black on her back. Bringing up an image of a domino made it clear why Gavin had named her as such. "They're cute."

   "Yeah," Gavin said, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. It quickly dropped when he noticed Nines staring. "Hurt them, and I'll rip every fucking cord and tube out of your body."

   "I don't know what makes you assume that I'd ever have any intention of bringing harm to them, but, noted."  
\---------------------------

   He'd never expected his relationship with Detective Reed to ever get better. Gavin had made it very clear from day one that he didn't like androids, made it even clearer when Nines had moved in back in April that he still didn't like androids. They bickered on and off, and more often than not, when they were at home, Gavin pretended best as he could that Bryan wasn't there.

   It started so slowly that even Nines had almost missed it. They argued less, Gavin seemed a bit more comfortable with him being there. At first, it seemed like Detective Reed had only been adapting. Getting over his intolerance towards Bryan to make his life easier, as all humans sought convenience. Nines wouldn't have even minded if that had been the case. 

   But, then they started interacting more friendly like at home, playing video games, and watching movies. Sometimes, Nines would paint Gavin's nails for him while the detective bitched about life. And it was while they were playing video games one night that he thought Gavin might be considering him a friend. 

   It made a warm, fuzzy feeling spread throughout him, something the likes of which he hadn't experienced yet. Warm and fuzzy emotions were a rarity for him. While his predecessor had room to grow emotionally, Nines hadn't had much room for such. Whereas Hank was willing to help Connor with his newfound personhood, up until recently, Gavin had expressed nothing but resentment towards androids. He didn't know what to do with the information that Gavin more than likely considered him a friend now.

   It seemed he didn't need to, because they both simultaneously lost the game at the same time, having been stuck on this level for the past two days or so. "Ugh. Whatever. Didn't wanna fucking beat this shit anyway."

   "That was the farthest we got yet." Nines supplied in what he hoped was a helpful matter. Gavin stood, throwing his controller on the couch as he dug a cigarette box and a lighter out of his hoodie pocket.

   "I'm going out for a smoke." He said as if that hadn't been obvious. "I needa think." With that, Gavin left the room, leaving Bryan by himself. He gently set his controller down as he decided to find something to do. 

   After a few minutes of exhausting most of his options, Nines noticed that it had been eighteen minutes and fifty-seven seconds since Gavin had gone out back for a smoke. It only took Gavin five to seven minutes to smoke a cigarette. What was he doing? Curious, Nines put down the dish he'd been washing and decided to check on him. 

    In the small dining room was a glass sliding door that led out to the back porch balcony, where Gavin often took his smoke breaks. Tonight wasn't any different, as he looked out the glass door to see Gavin silhouetted against the dark sky, a cigarette burning steadily towards his fingers. He was turned with his back to the door, and from here, Nines could see he had his phone up to his ear. 

He shouldn't snoop. Curiosity did kill the cat. But, if he remembered the saying correctly, satisfaction brought it back. Quietly, he slid the glass door open just wide enough to hear. From the phone, he could hear a female robotic voice.  _"Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system."_  And then a beep.

   "Hey." Nines jumped a bit at the sound of Gavin's voice, but then realized it wasn't directed towards him. "Bro, it's, uh, it's Gavin. I just wanted to see how you were doing. Fucking fabulously, I'm guessing." He scoffed a bit and took a drag off of his cigarette. "...I also wanted to apologize. You helped me when no one else in our shitty fucking family would, and I just... shut you out. It was wrong, and... I hope you can forgive me. Wouldn't be surprised or pissed off if you didn't, though." A pause. "I'm sorry, Eli."

   And like that, Gavin pulled the phone away from his ear and pressed the end call button. He pulled something from his sweatpants pocket, and after a moment of messing around with the object, Bryan had deciphered it was the butterfly knife. The initials written on it came back to mind;  _E.K._  Gavin had been on the phone with an Eli, and had directly called him 'bro'. He needn't go any further with that train of thought. It was pretty self-explanatory where it was going. 

   Even if he had continued, it would have been interrupted, anyway. "I know you're back there, Nines." Normally, when Gavin caught him snooping, he was pissed. But his voice was so flat this time that Nines found himself opening the glass sliding door and stepping out onto the porch with him. Gavin took another drag off of his cigarette before putting it out on the railing of the balcony. He dug another from his pack before putting it between his lips and lighting it.

   Bryan frowned. "You shouldn't smoke, Detective."

   "Tch, yeah, whatever." Gavin took another drag. "Gonna die someday, anyways. Doesn't fuckin' matter how. Must be nice being invincible, right, Bry?"

   "I'm not invincible." Nines countered. "I'm just as mortal as you. Is there any reason, in particular, you're out here feeling sorry for yourself?"

   "Fuck you." There was no bite behind it.

   "Were you on the phone with your brother?" 

   "Yup. Mr. Bigshot Elijah Kamski." Gavin turned to face him, leaning back against the railing. It looked like a really precarious place to put that much weight. "Figures, he was too fucking busy drowning in money, pussy, or both to answer the phone for his  _favoritest_  little stepbrother. Prolly read the caller ID and decided it wasn't worth his time."

   "Gavin."

   "Or, maybe he's pissed off he paid for my surgery and then I dropped him like a bad habit." Gavin continued anyway. "Maybe he's glad I stopped talking to him."

   "Why would he be happy about it?"

   "Because I'm a  _fuck up_." He'd spat the words like it was common knowledge. "Don't gimme that look, Nines, you and I both know it's fucking true. I can't do my job right, I can't maintain relationships- fuck, I can't even do something as simple as play a fucking  _video game_."

   Bryan thinned his lips into a line. "Gavin."

   "What?" 

   Nines stepped closer and Gavin avoided eye contact, gaze downcast. He reached up, thumb swiping across the human's cheek. "You're crying." 

   He couldn't be sure, but it was either those two words, the action, or both that had set off Gavin's next reaction, breath hitching as the cigarette in his hand dropped into the backyard below in favor of covering his face. "Go away..." He growled. "Why the  _fuck_  are you even still here? Go the fuckaway."

   Nines had never seen Gavin Reed display any emotions other than annoyance, anger, or indifference. Here he was, crying, and he was telling him to go away. He frowned.   
  
  _**Gavin**  is  **self-loathing**.  
    **He**  is  **probably** convinced  **that**  I  **don't** want  **to**  be  **here**._

   Bryan couldn't remember anything that had happened before his deviancy, but even with personhood, he'd made nearly every decision based on facts, like he's sure he had before he'd deviated. There weren't any logical decisions here, and the one he ended up making certainly couldn't be read as logical. He'd barely even thought it through before wrapping a hand around Gavin's wrist and tugging the shorter man to his chest, arms wrapping around him. The human tensed in his hold. 

   For a long, awkward moment they stayed like that, Gavin, with a pair of strong arms wrapped around him, his shoulders hunched as though he'd just had a bucket of cold water dumped on him, head pressed uncomfortably into Nines' chest. Everything in the android's head screamed that he'd made the wrong decision. But then the man's shoulders dropped, his muscles relaxed, and Nines felt a pair of arms wrap around him in return. "The fuck's wrong with you...?"

   "I suppose I like you."  
\-----------------------------------------

   Nines felt he should tell Gavin it was a bad idea to have coffee this late at night, but they didn't have work tomorrow, and he did just get done having a thirty minute long crying fit in his arms. 

   "Can I ask you-"

   "A personal question." Gavin finished the sentence for him. "Yeah. Sure."

   "You said Mr. Kamski paid for your surgery?" Bryan asked. He watched Gavin take a sip from his coffee mug. It said 'Purride', with a rainbow cat on it. Nines was beginning to see a pattern here. 

   "Gender reassignment surgery," Gavin replied. "I just graduated from the Detroit Police Academy when he offered. And I kinda knew if I didn't take him up on his offer that I was never gonna be able to afford that shit on my own." He scowled. "'Specially cuz I coulda lost my job at any point."

   A pause, before Nines felt the need to clarify, "To an android." 

   "Yeah," Gavin said. "So, I took up on his offer. Got my name legally changed just in time to get it put on my diploma, too."

   "Why did you stop talking to him?"

   Gavin shrugged. "I was convinced he hated me. We're not technically related. And even if we were, the rest of my family hated me."

   In hindsight, Bryan should have stopped asking questions then and there. But curiosity killed the cat, and satisfaction brought it back. "Why?"

   "Fuck if I know," Gavin muttered into his cup. He took another sip of his coffee. "Maybe they could always just tell I wasn't gonna be  _perfect_  like Eli. And then I proved 'em right."

   That made another question pop into his head. "How long have you been struggling with self-depreciating thoughts?"

   "Why do you even care?" Okay, wrong direction. That was going backward. Nines was trying to go forwards.

   "I already told you." He said. "I like you."

   "Tch. No one likes me." Gavin scoffed. 

   "I guess I'm going to have to change my name to No One, then."

   He didn't fail to see, even in the dim lighting, the way Gavin's face turned red. "... You  _do_  realize I'm not the only guy on Earth to be friends with, right? I should be your last resort. If that."

   "May I give you my honest opinion, Gavin?"

   "Sure." He muttered. "Knock yourself out."

   "I believe you misdirect your hatred towards yourself and take it out on others," Nines said. "Over the past two and a half months of me living here, I've been granted glimpses into your softer side. You appear to be perfectly capable of treating others with decency and respect, and yet you don't. I feel you're rude to others to push them away because you feel you're unlovable. Am I correct?"

   Gavin blinked a couple times. "I thought you were a detective, not a fuckin' therapist."

   "I'm extremely flexible."

   "Please don't say that ever again," Gavin said, making a face. Disgust, Bryan's sensors said.

   "Am I correct in my assessment?"

   "Fuck, alright, yeah." He growled. He refused to make eye contact. "God, it's not even any of your business."

   Bryan scanned him. "That's not why you're offended. You're offended because I managed to stick around even through your bullshit."

   "Well, if you were smart, you'd fuck off and find someone else to hang with. Just cuz ya managed to peg me doesn't mean anything's gonna change... I'm still gonna be asshole Gavin Reed." He set the coffee cup down and leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms as he tried to hide his eyes behind his messy hair. 

   He wasn't trained for these situations. The only thing he could do was go off of whatever information there was on the internet- he's an investigator, not a therapist; like Gavin had pointed out. Most of the pages he was on right now were telling him to be direct. So, that's exactly what he was going to do. "What have you done to deserve all the negative things you think about yourself?"

   "... What?"

   "You heard me." Nines replied. "Give me an actual reason for why you deserve to feel so negatively."

   Gavin stared at him like he'd just said something in several different languages at one time. Which, was something Nines was entirely capable of doing, but not the case at this particular moment. "Did you not hear me two minutes ago? My older brother paid for my surgery and then I stopped talking to him. I've threatened your doppelganger I dunno how many fucking times, I've spat insults at Anderson for the past three and a half years after he lost his fucking son. How is any of that okay?"

   "It's not," Bryan replied. He watched Gavin's face go through several different expressions over the span of a few seconds, namely confusion and frustration. "But you know how you can fix those situations?"

   "How."

   "Apologizing." Nines replied. "You apologized to your brother earlier, so I know you're perfectly capable of being genuine. It won't take back the actions, but it will help you move forward and be able to forgive yourself, as well."

   "Tch..."

   Nines sighed, more out of habit than for any respiratory need. "Humor me, and try it?" 

   "Maybe."

**Author's Note:**

> 'Hug the sad cat dad' - my friend DJ who only joined the fandom a couple days ago and hasn't had time to form that definitive of an opinion of Gavin Reed. And still managed to hit the nail on the head.
> 
> Uhh, headcanons, let's see here. Gavin Reed is gay. Gavin Reed is trans. Gavin Reed and Elijah Kamski are siblings. Elijah Kamski is drowning in pussy. Gavin Reed is Cat Dad. Gavin Reed is a punk. 
> 
> Y'all David Cage did such a bad job with Gavin. He deserved better. So I got my grubby gay hands all over him and wrote this. Really, the only purpose of this one-shot was to give Gavin some substance as a character. I accidentally made him hate himself whoops.


End file.
